What the Obamacare Rollout Means for the Healthcare Business

Which health and medical businesses stand to gain and lose from the faulty roll out of Obamacare? I discussed the topic this week on WNYC’s Money Talking, with the New York Times columnist Joe Nocera. Our contrarian consensus—the biggest short-term loser will be the insurance companies. They rarely garner anyone’s sympathy, but they’ve already set their premium pricing for 2014—so if the flawed rollout results in fewer people, and sicker people signing up, there’s a good chance they’ll loose money. That would likely mean higher premiums the following year—and fewer and sicker people signing up. It’s a cycle called the death spiral—and it’s what everyone involved in the rollout has been dreading. To hear more about this, and the other business implications of the Affordable Healthcare Act, check out this week’s episode of Money talking, here: